Why Social Media Make Us More Polarized, and How to Fix It

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October 15, 2020

Dear Reader, Speech-recognition technologies are twice as likely to incorrectly transcribe audio from Black speakers compared with white speakers. In a column from our October issue, Claudia Lopez-Lloreda explains why the racial bias of these devices is problematic and what can be done to fix it. Next, several candidates with a scientific background are running for federal office this fall. We take a look at a few key congressional races. And today's featured story is about how social media "influencers" exacerbate polarization online.

Sunya Bhutta, Senior Editor, Audience Engagement @sunyaaa

Behavior & Society Why Social Media Make Us More Polarized, and How to Fix It Research shows it's the influencers, not the networks themselves, that amplify differences between us By Damon Centola

Computing How Speech-Recognition Software Discriminates against Minority Voices Until programmers recognize their own internal biases, the software they create will be problematic By Claudia Lopez-Lloreda

Environment Why a Historic Emissions Drop from COVID Is No Cause to Celebrate The greenhouse gas reductions highlight the difficult road ahead to substantially limit global warming By Benjamin Storrow,E&E News

Arts & Culture Luminous Zebra Fish Wins Contest for Microscopic Photography A mix of scientists and hobbyists made our top picks from the 2020 Nikon Small World contest By Andrea Gawrylewski

Policy & Ethics Physician-Politicians Tout Medical Credentials in Key U.S. Congressional Races Amid the pandemic, candidates in tight contests in Arizona and Kansas contrast their understanding of science with opponents' disregard By Gloria Dickie

Medicine How to Take Racial Bias Out of Kidney Tests A medical student describes winning her fight to change an equation that prevented Black people from getting crucial treatment By Ashleen Knutsen

Public Health How to Avoid COVID while Voting Epidemiologists offer tips for U.S. voters and poll workers to limit their chances of getting infected By Jim Daley

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FROM THE ARCHIVE Today's Biggest Threat: The Polarized Mind To counter it, we call for a mobilization of mindfulness practices and dialogue groups on the scale of a public works program for human civility By Kirk J. Schneider,Sayyed Mohsen Fatemi | April 2019

QUOTE OF THE DAY "The problem of partisan bias is exacerbated on social media because online networks are often organized around a few key influencers. This feature of social media is one of the main reasons why misinformation and fake news has become so pervasive." Damon Centola, Director of the Network Dynamics Group

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